The Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs has been trying to help seafarers to obtain licenses for working on foreign ships. This Ministry has been also struggling to sign the Agreement on the mutual recognition of seafarers’ certificates with the European Union (EU) member states. So far, this Ministry has managed to sign such an agreement with Portugal and plan to do the same with the Netherlands. The transport and maritime affairs minister, Osman Nurković, in an interview with CdM, has confirmed all these allegations in an interview with CdM. He also confirmed that train companies have more staff than needed, but overcoming this issue requires a lot of money, and they are going to try to find sources of financing next year. As for the Airports concession, the leading world companies have been interested in this project, according to Nurković.
Here are the brief extracts from Nurković’s interview…
CdM: Is Montenegro going to pay penalties if there happen to be any delays in the construction of the motorway or that is going to be the China’s CRBC company responsibility?
Nurković: Construction contract envisages that both parties have rights to ask for additional payments and/or extension of the implementation deadline, and there is a Supervisory body, which is to examine and decide upon these requirements. If there happen to be delays due to justified reasons given by the contractor, there’s a possibility of charging the damage caused, in the amount of maximum EUR 40 million.
CdM: Seafarers have been complaining a lot as they have difficulties in obtaining the license for working on foreign ships. Did you do anything about this matter, i.e. did the seafarers ask for your assistance?
Nurković: The only thing that the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs can do right now is to try to sign the Agreement on mutual recognition of seafarers’ certificates with the EU member states. On 24 September 2018, we signed such an agreement with Portugal thus enabling Montenegrin seafarers to work on ships sailing under Portugal’s flag. We hope to have this agreement signed with the Netherlands as well, by the end of 2018.
CdM: Maintaining the railway infrastructure requires a lot of money. Is the money used for appropriate purposes or it’s spent for something else, as our trains are old, in an extremely bad condition and always late?
Nurković: Since 2006, we have been committed to the general repairs of major railroads and invest over EUR 12 million in the railway infrastructure, on annual level. The largest number of works have been performed in line with the most rigorous international procurement procedures, as well as the procedures of the leading European banks (EIB, EBRD, ČEB, IPA funds, WBIF fund for the Western Balkans), so all the speculations about spending money on who knows what are groundless.
CdM: How many employees the train companies have? Is there more staff than needed, maybe some plan for firing them or some kind of a social program?
Nurković: All four companies count around 1,650 employees, which is by 50% less compared to the situation we had 20 years ago. The companies are currently estimating the number of people they need to recruit, whereas there is a certain surplus employee situation in the administration.
CdM: Can you tell us the names of the companies interested in the Airports of Montenegro?
Nurković: Those are 4 French companies, 4-5 of them are from Turkey, 2 German companies, several are from the Arabic countries (Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates), then from South Korea, Ireland, Austria, India and from some other countries as well.
CdM: Is it true that the German Investment Fund, 4K Invest, is interested in taking over Montenegro Airlines?
Nurković: Yes, it’s true. We had several meetings and discussed possible models for cooperation.
CdM: In May 2018, you told that it was very important to establish rail connection between Montenegro and Kosovo. What did you mean?
Nurković: It’s about the new railway line Pljevlja-Bijelo Polje-Berane-Kosovo border, for which we already have a preliminary design, along with all the necessary documentation. This would be the completely new railway, which would valorize Pljevlja and make the connection with Kosovo, Peć. We have already presented this idea to our Kosovo counterparts and expect further actions in terms of the preliminary design.
